Audi's Clinch Le Mans Victory

In a remarkable show of gritty determination Audi's only surviving car, Number Three driven by Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer, clinched victory in this year's Le Man's 24 hours race by a scant 13.85 seconds from the Number Nine Peugeot of Sebastien Bourdais, Simon Pagenud and Pedro Lamy followed by three other Peugeot's that, at the end of the day, couldn't crack Audi's iron will to win.

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The winning car was considered to be very much the junior team but the three drivers, led by Audi's first female chief engineer, Leena Gade proved worthy of the task.

Following Rockenfeller's horrific 230 mph accident late on Saturday night and running under the safety car for the best part of two hours, Audi's sole surviving R18TDI never enjoyed more than a minute's lead over their French arch-rivals.

Still the team and drivers kept cool heads, to the extent that Lotterer posted the fastest race time of 3 mins 25.29 secs on lap 229.

Despite brief showers on Sunday morning and the fact that the Audi's were running one lap less between fuel stops never mind that the Peugeots were relentlessly cutting into their lead, Audi somehow managed to clung to a lead that was continuously whittled away as the morning wore on. With 35 minutes showing on the clock both the Audi and Peugeot had to make dash and splash pit stops, with the German car leading its French rival out the pits by just 7.8secs that was gradually stretched to nearly double as the seconds ticked away.

There was no hiding Audi's sense of relief and joy at its victory and, equally, no hiding of Peugeot's disappointment that, despite having four cars chasing one Audi down it still wasn't enough to secure victory.